The Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS) announced this Wednesday, March 10 "
currently working on the organization of transfers of patients in critical care to Belgian health establishments
", the first to go abroad for this new wave of the epidemic.
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“
These transfers will concern Belgian border hospitals, usual partners of French hospitals within the framework of cross-border agreements.
They could be organized as early as
"Wednesday"
or in the coming days depending on the available reception capacities, the eligibility of patients and the agreement of the families
", specified the ARS in a press release.
The Hauts-de-France had not resorted to such transfers abroad since November, when “a
few patients
”, according to the ARS, had been sent to Germany, to the hospital in Münster.
This time it will be a less cumbersome operation to organize, "
probably
" from hospitals close to the border, in particular the European metropolis of Lille, we told ARS.
More than 90 intensive care patients have also already been transferred within a month from Dunkirk hospital to other establishments, including five outside the region, the North Prefecture said on Tuesday (March 9).
Across the region, hospitalizations for Covid-19 amounted to 2,958 on Tuesday, including 484 in intensive care, according to the latest report from the ARS.
The incidence rates remain well above the national average in several areas of the region, in particular in the Urban Community of Dunkirk and the Hauts de Flandre Community of Municipalities, where they stand at 785 and 687 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. , after an epidemic outbreak fueled by the English variant.
The weekend confinement entered into force in these two agglomerations on February 27, initially until March 7, was extended to the next three weekends, or until Sunday March 28, the prefecture announced on Tuesday.
A weekend containment has also been imposed since Saturday and for the entire month of March in the neighboring department of Pas-de-Calais, where the incidence rate stood at 404 cases on Friday.
